"Tainted" Technology Has Seed of Conflict Mineral Solution Within

The solution’s in the problem. Bandi Mbubi’s TEDx talk suggests that increased use of technology is a key part of solving the conflict minerals problem.

Imagining a harrowing situation change for the better is often difficult, and at times impossible. Hearing about the problematic sourcing of minerals for our technology, like many of the stories we push to the back of our minds this time of year, can lead to despondency and a sense of disempowerment — after all what can we do about it?

However as you can see above, talking to Bandi Mbubi (founder of Congo Calling a movement for conflict free tech sparked by his talk on TED) I found myself becoming enthusiastic about the possibilities for effecting change. This came down to his simple idea that we need to increase (rather than decrease) our use of technology to solve the problem of sourcing conflict free minerals for our gadgets.

If you’ve not come across the situation before Mbubi put it in a nutshell for me. “Every mobile phone contains the mineral Coltan, which is mined in the Congo. This natural wealth could bring many benefits to the ordinary people of the Congo, but instead it is funding armed conflict and horrific abuses. Congo Calling’s vision is for a peaceful and just Congo, where people can live in stable and prosperous communities.”

Listening to his TEDx talk was uncomfortable. I could no longer pretend that this wasn’t an issue, that nothing was wrong. It’s not an unfamiliar feeling, but what was unexpected was the call to increase my use the very thing causing the problem to help move towards a solution.

“Don’t throw away your phones just yet. The incredible irony is that the technology that has placed such unsustainable devastating demands on the Congo is the same technology that has brought this situation to our attention. We only know so much about the situation in the Congo because the kind of communication that the mobile phone allows.”

Rather than reducing our use of this technology Mbubi’s message was to use it all the more, use it to get the message out. I ask him to expand on this. He told me how this perspective had sparked a surprising response — and it seemed that no-one was more surprised than the unassuming Mbubi. Since the TEDx talk last April the Congo Calling movement has advanced rapidly with Universities like St Andrews in Scotland being the first to take up the challenge of being conflict free institutions.

The irony was underlined during our chat as we had arranged the meeting, tweeted our plans, found our way to the venue and even filmed the conversation using our iPhones — mine and his. “Part of the problem is the silence and how are you going to communicate the sad story of the Congo without technology.” Listening to this felt like a tipping point as we realize the power of the storytelling tools we have in our pockets, gadgets we often only use a fraction of.

Erika Morphy recently wrote about the Securities and Exchange Commission vote to adopt a rule requiring companies to trace and audit certain minerals. “Tracking a supply chain and riding it of conflict minerals, however, is no small undertaking for companies that source these minerals. Supply chains, for various reasons, can be notoriously opaque especially for items that are provided by a supplier that may be two or three tiers away from a core supplier.”

This seems to makes it all the more important to increase the reasons for companies to follow through with their efforts, whether that is in the Stock Markets as Morphy describes or a groundswell of awareness that Mbubi suggests.

Sat on the sofa talking in detail about the issues with him was not only a privilege but something that reignited my desire to pass on his story about what we can do together to improve the situation, something that took me back to hearing him speak for the first time at TEDxExeter.

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